Business

5 Ways to Combine Your Email Marketing with Social Media
- February 13, 2013
- 3 Comments
- by Wanda Baader
Social media presents an opportunity to build your subscriber base with a wide range of different people and cross-promote your business from different traffic sources. If you integrate your social media marketing with your email list, you can harness the power of both of these sources for even more traffic and engagement.

Let Your Social Networks Know

On all of your social networks, let everyone know about your email sign-up page and tell them about the exclusive promotions you’re offering there. Your social media profiles work as a great entry point into your sales funnel. Absolutely any social network can be used to qualify prospects and get them to your sign-up page.

On social networking sites, there are tools that allow users to share content they like. Features such as Facebook’s ‘likes’, Twitter’s ‘re-tweets’, and Pinterest’s ‘repins’ allow people to help spread the word for you. Encourage visitors to share and consider creating a reward system for those who share the most.

The Facebook Sign-up Tab

On your Facebook page, you can create a custom tab with a sign-up form so that your fans can sign up directly on your page. The best place to put this tab is on one of the visible ‘squares’ just below your cover photo. This is a prime area of Internet real estate that is visible as soon as people arrive on your main cover page.

Promoting on Your Blog

Your blog is also part of your social profile. Make sure you’re promoting your email list there prominently. Put something on your blog’s sidebar that’s visible on each post and page so that it gets as much exposure as possible. Consider placing forms at the bottom of each post, or even in your header. Just like in your social networks, make sure that your offer or freebie is mentioned on your blog’s opt-in form.

Getting Subscribers to Social Media

Integrating social media and your email list means sending traffic both ways, so get your list members to connect with you on social media. One way to do this is to add social media buttons to your emails. These are buttons like Facebook’s ‘Like This’ and Twitter’s ‘Tweet This.’ Using these buttons, your readers can share your content or comment on it without leaving the email message.

Some email services, such as AWeber, have social icons for networks like Facebook and Twitter that you can simply drag and drop into your emails. Then people can click on the icon to connect with you on those networks.

One of the best ways to encourage list members to connect with you on social media is by offering exclusive content there. Offer something different in each place so they have a reason to visit you there.

Going Mobile

An increasing number of people read their emails and socialize online using mobile devices, so make sure that everything is mobile-friendly. Send emails in both text and HTML. Test any templates that you’re using. Make text large and images easy to view with short loading times. Typing on mobiles is difficult so make your opt-in form easy to fill out. Also make sure that your landing pages are optimized for mobile.

The more touch points you have with your audience, the more valuable a relationship you can build with them. This is why it’s essential to communicate with them on as many channels as possible, and to not rely primarily on one platform. It also helps to find out what social networking and other sites your target market is using so that you can focus your email integration and interaction in those places. You should be online wherever your prospects and customers are.

At Strategize Your Success we help women entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with online strategic goal setting, marketing and planning. We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE. Contact us today for a FREE 30 minute Discovery Session.

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Knowing What to Share in Social Networking
- January 28, 2013
- 0 comments
- by Wanda Baader
Understanding your target audience and finding your unique positioning are crucial first steps to become a social media success and once you have those items a bit clearer in your mind, you’re ready to start experimenting with how you’ll participate in social media.

The nice thing about working online and in social media is that you can reshape your plan as you go along. So don’t worry about having your target market and unique positioning engraved in stone. It’s not necessary as you will find that even if you have it figured out now, your audience and their needs change over time. And since your smart, I know that you will want to evolve with your audience.

So with all that in mind, let’s look at our big 5 networks to see how you can fit in.

Facebook

This is a pretty visual social network with a lot of possibilities for sharing. Images and video do well, and while you can share text, you might find that if you add an image to your text, you’ll get more views and responses to your status update.

Facebook also offers the ability to poll your audience which can be a lot of fun for participants and insightful for you. You can also share your company history through the Milestones feature, keeping in mind what would interest your audience most.

Facebook offers pretty in-depth analytics and gives you plenty of clues on which content does well and which type of content doesn’t. Use these analytics to figure out how to hone your presence.

Twitter

Twitter is a more text-based social network that requires you to be brief in your sharing, as you only have 140 characters to make your point. You can post images and link to videos, but users will generally need to click through to view them.

One of the biggest opportunities with Twitter is to use their @ replies and RT (Retweet feature). Place an @ before a username, allows you to communicate directly with users on Twitter and can pave the way to new connections. RT allows you to share someone else’s useful update with your audience, which is another way to foster goodwill among like minded users.

Google+

Google+ is another visual network with a lot of images and, in particular, videos being shared.

While using Google+, definitely take advantage of their Circles feature, which allows you to categorize your contacts in any number of ways. This allows you to keep friends and family separate from business contacts. It also allows you to categorize your business contacts as well. For example, you can make circles for your customers, affiliates, mastermind groups and more.

One of the most unique opportunities at Google+ is Hangouts, which offer a group video and/or audio chat. It’s perfect for brainstorming groups, planning and getting to know your audience better…so take advantage.

Pinterest

As you probably know, Pinterest is the most visual network of all because it is simply a collection of images. Videos can also be shared, but aren’t in as much abundance.

Images that you share on Pinterest should be categorized appropriately and include a description that adds to the user experience. Choose images that are visually striking that make people feel like the item in the picture is in the same room as them.

LinkedIn

Your approach to LinkedIn should be that of an information sharer and connector. Connect people who should know each other and offer help through groups and answering questions. For LinkedIn, the key isn’t in the number of connections you make, but the quality of those connections so put your focus there.

As you can see, each network is a little bit different. A lot of people attempt to use social media integration tools that simply broadcast their updates across all networks, but this is a short sighted approach. While I do encourage the use of social media integration tools, it’s important to use them wisely. Take the time to deliver the right information to the right audience on the right social network and you’ll have much better results.

At Strategize Your Success we help women entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with online strategic goal setting, marketing and planning. We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE.

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Know Your Uniqueness and Score Big on Social Media
- January 14, 2013
- 0 comments
- by Wanda Baader
Social media marketing requires unique positioning just like the rest of your marketing. In fact, it might be even more crucial in social media because you’re competing with hundreds or even thousands of other voices vying for attention at the exact same time.

When someone comes to your website, you still need to grab their attention, but there aren’t a bunch of other people shouting their latest tweet or status update all over your page. Unfortunately, that’s how it is on social media. Whether it’s your personality that shines through or the type of information you provide, there needs to be a reason your audience looks forward to your social media updates.

Start by thinking about why your readers are drawn to you. Why do they like and share your stuff? How are you fulfilling their wishes, helping them achieve their goals or how are you easing their worries? If you don’t know why, simply ask them.

If you’re still not sure what makes you different, take a look at your competition or other companies that you follow on social media. What do they do that makes them unique? Write a list of about 10 companies and determine their unique social positioning. That doesn’t mean you have to copy what they do, but by exploring it and being able to recognize uniqueness, you can find your own too.

Some of the things that might make you and others unique include the ability:

– to make people laugh
– to inspire people
– to make people ask themselves tough questions

…and just about anything else that evokes a strong emotion or thought. How can you get your audience feeling and thinking about something?

Your uniqueness can also be found by the type of media you are known for sharing, whether it’s:

– Video
– Images

…but there needs to be something unique about those videos, images or other media. After all, everyone and their dog has their own YouTube channel, but what makes your production different than everyone else?

Well, one way to ensure your content is different is to understand that uniqueness requires some self-development as well. It sounds airy-fairy, but it’s absolutely true. Offering something deeper doesn’t come because you want it to, it comes from being deeper yourself. That includes:

– Sharing an opinion: Don’t be afraid to say what you think, even if it’s not conventional wisdom. It doesn’t matter if people think you’re wrong, you’re getting people to think and you’re showing yourself as someone who is able to think for themselves.

– Look at things from different perspectives: In addition to having an opinion, take the time to understand different perspectives. The more you understand the opinions that oppose yours, the stronger your opinion will be.

– Avoid simply copying what everyone else is doing: Just because ABC Company is doing a series of videos on gardening tips, doesn’t mean you have to follow suit. The more you can pay attention to your own audience’s needs and disregard your competition (unless you’re in a one on one battle of some type), the more likely you’re to find your uniqueness.

– Experience things: Don’t just talk about stuff on social media, get out and do it. By doing more, you have more valuable content to share with your audience. Whether it’s opinions based on your experiences, photos, videos or something else, by getting out and experiencing life, you bring more to the table for your audience.

If you look at all this again, you’ll see that being unique really comes from bringing your best self forward.

If you want to stand out from the crowd, dig deep to find your best self and serve your audience faithfully. The benefits will be worth it.…and just about anything else that evokes a strong emotion or thought.

At Strategize Your Success we help women entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with online strategic goal setting, marketing and planning. We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE.

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5 Reasons Marketing Should Be a Business Priority for the New Year
- January 3, 2013
- 0 comments
- by Wanda Baader
Small business owners wear many hats. They are often the accountant, receptionist, secretary, repairperson, and much more. They multi-task like there’s no tomorrow, tackling administrative, sales, and all sorts of other functions. Even if they hire employees or contractors to handle some of these things, they still have a lot to do. So it’s easy to forget about marketing.

But marketing is one of those things that it pays not to forget about. It is essential to every business, no matter how large or small. Here are five reasons that marketing should be one of our top business priorities for the New Year:
- Marketing can bring us new customers. Doing a great job is wonderful, but if you don’t have any customers in the first place, who’s going to know what great work your business does? Marketing introduces your business to new people who may be interested in your products or services.
- Marketing keeps current customers happy. Customer loyalty promotions and sales keep those who have previously done business with you coming back for more. Those happy customers are also a good source of referrals.
- Putting forth the right image is crucial to our success. Large companies often spend a huge portion of their budgets making sure that their image is just right. Smaller businesses may not have the big budgets that larger ones do, but it’s just as important that they present themselves in a way that is pleasing to their target markets.
- Marketing is not all about advertising and finding other ways to market effectively can lead to higher profits. Word of mouth marketing is one of the most effective ways to get customers, and the costs associated with it are low in comparison to paid advertising. Taking the time to examine customer service policies and other factors in customer satisfaction can pay big dividends in the long run.
- Good marketing can keep you a step ahead of the competition. If your competition is running large marketing campaigns and you’re not doing any marketing, you could be left in the dust. That doesn’t mean that you should try to outspend the competition, it just means that you need to make sure that they’re not the only visible player in the game.
If you don’t have the time or inclination to deal with marketing, you could hire an assistant to handle it. Having someone who can dedicate a fair amount of time to marketing efforts is more economical than letting it eat into your work time, and it can pay off generously in the long run.

Marketing is an important part of any business and should always be a priority. Without it, no one would know that we exist or what we do. By making marketing one of our top priorities, we give our businesses the opportunity to grow and prosper.

At Strategize Your Success we help women entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with online strategic goal setting, marketing and planning. We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help
make your business THRIVE.

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The New Years Game Plan for Business Success
- January 1, 2013
- Comments Off on The New Years Game Plan for Business Success
- by Wanda Baader
It’s the start of a New Year and usually the time that business owners like to plan strategies for the year. They want to increase productivity and get things done which means having a good game-plan.

This is a time of the year that I see a lot of people reaching out to coaches like myself to get the help or accountability they need in order to achieve success. They may have determined that the year before did not work out as well as they hoped and need to seek support from someone who may have been down the road they have yet to travel.

So let’s take a look at what steps need to be taken in order to make life easier and flow better. First, you need to know exactly what must be done. Second, even if you do not have a specific deadline, you must also decide when it must be done. The third step is putting yourself to the task of doing it.

You want to accomplish your goals, whether they are short-term or long-term. You also want to be proud of and satisfied with the results. When you make up your mind to not “go with the flow,” but instead take your game-plan more seriously, you are nearly guarantying success, pride, and satisfaction.

Some people are more organized and are used to having structure and time-management as a regular part of their lives. If you are not used to these concepts, now is the time to implement them into your everyday life. Whether you are working a business of your own, working for someone else, or whether your work is taking care of your family you will gain many benefits from setting up a good game-plan. Any successful person will tell you this is the key to any sustainable success.

If you have ever felt that there are not enough hours in a day to do everything you need to do, this will be a very positive step for you. You will be pleasantly surprised with how much you can accomplish. With a game-plan, you may find yourself getting more done each day than you usually accomplish in a week. Not only will you be more productive, but achieving each goal will come much easier. You will soon appreciate this all-important factor in your success.

At Strategize Your Success we help women entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with online strategic goal setting, marketing and planning. We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE.

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Top Tips for Advertising
- December 19, 2012
- 0 comments
- by Wanda Baader
As with any industry in its day-to-day life, such as advertising and business, there are always tips on how best to deal with situations, how best to approach people depending upon the circumstances and the reason for approaching.

For the world of advertising, here are some basic tips that will help you along and help you achieve your desired goal more expediently and effectively.
- Find your target audience. You will have to do some initial research. For online advertising you’ll want to use an ad tracker, as this will give you an idea of where your ad is going and what industry setting you get the most views from.
- Know your competitive edge. What can you offer that others can’t? Maybe they can offer the same thing but can you find a different spin or edge to make your product more appealing? Maybe you can go one step further in offering up just a little bit more. Maybe you have more experience or knowledge. There are a lot of ways to form a competitive edge. Know your market and your competitors and be creative.
- Establishing your image can be the best or worst thing for you depending on how you project. If you project a bad image for yourself or your company, then your sales will most definitely not be where you want them to be. Always be professional. Be careful of what you say, whether it be on air or in print. Use a catchy logo and tag line. Make your image good and consistent so that it becomes recognizable.
- Spend and make money – many people don’t like this age old adage – You have to spend money to make money. But it is very true. You will eventually spend money on advertising, even with free advertising as time alone is money.
The more money you spend, generally the better your reach. You don’t want to lower your effectiveness in sales by cutting corners. The cheaper and free advertising may be a good short term solution when you’re starting out but eventually you will want to look into different advertising options that may require more money.

While most advertising is budgeted, don’t be a stick-in-the-mud with that budget. All industries have “seasonal” times. Learn the best times and season for your product or service and during these time increase your budget. Look at places such as Wal-Mart for back to school or holiday sales – they don’t stay within their set advertising budget.

Knowing when your high and low sales points are will be will become a cornerstone in determining when to go over budget. Keep in mind as well that these seasonal times can change according to economy and market changes.
- Know your market; find your niche. You do not want to advertise in the wrong “community”. If you want to sell rodeo tickets you don’t go to a baseball game. Do your research to find your niches.
- Diversification is a great key to advertising. You never want to use just one measure of attracting customers. Generally the wealthiest businesses are the ones that use a many-fold approach in finding new clients and customers.
- Keep in mind that your product or service will not appeal to everyone, no matter what you do. If you spend the time and money trying to appeal to everyone, you stand a high risk of losing more than you are gaining. This is especially so when you are a smaller company.
Even the major fast food chains don’t do this. They have a market and they know who that market is.

While these tips don’t sound too difficult, you would be surprised at just how many people struggle with advertising. The key is always to diversify, be persistent and track your results ruthlessly so that you know what’s working and what isn’t.

At Strategize Your Success we help entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with strategic goal setting, marketing and planning. We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE.

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5 Reasons Every Business Owner Should Be Outsourcing
- December 17, 2012
- 0 comments
- by Wanda Baader
In most large businesses, employees perform specialized functions. Secretaries handle all of the filing and related tasks. Marketing people handle the advertising and public relations. Accountants keep the books. Salespeople make the sales.

Many small businesses do not have the luxury of being able to hire employees. So the business owner must handle everything herself. While this may work out reasonably well in the initial stages, as the business grows it gets more difficult to keep up with it all. There are some compelling reasons that business owners should consider outsourcing.
- You can’t learn everything. No matter how smart you are, you simply can’t. Even if you could, learning takes time, and there are only a set number of hours in a day. If you try to learn every minute aspect of the things that need to be done for your business, you’re going to end up disappointed and frustrated.
- You have a life outside of your business. Everyone needs time to spend with family and friends, even if they’re running a business. If we try to tackle everything ourselves, we won’t have time to enjoy the finer things in life.
- The stress of trying to do it all can adversely affect your health. There are enough stressors in life that we don’t need to add to them unnecessarily. But if we put pressure on ourselves to run a business on our own with no help at all, it can really stress us out. Besides affecting our state of mind, too much stress can cause high blood pressure and put us at risk for many other ailments.
- People who are trained well in their fields may be able to do a better job. If you barely know HTML, it would take you quite a while to learn how to make a good-looking and functional website. An experienced web designer could have your entire website up and running before you were finished learning what you need to know. In situations such as this, it makes more sense to outsource than to try to do it yourself.
- Outsourcing can save you money. Some tasks require special equipment or software. If you’re not going to need these things in the future, it doesn’t make much sense to buy them for one project. Hiring someone else that already has what is needed to get the job done is usually more economical.
In many cases, outsourcing makes good business sense. It allows us to concentrate on the things we’re best at, and it can save us time and money. So the next time you find yourself with an over abundance of work, consider outsourcing.

At Strategize Your Success we help entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with strategic goal setting, marketing and planning. We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE.

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Social Networking Gets Way Easier When You Know Your Target
- December 7, 2012
- 0 comments
- by Wanda Baader
If you’ve been operating your website and business for a while, you probably have a good idea who your target market is. But your social media audience could be considerably different. Plus, each network is unique, so how you approach each one might be quite different.

It’s important to take the time to explore your target market because the more deeply you understand them, the easier it will be for you to create a connection and keep their attention.

To get to know your social network target market, here are a few things to look at.

Know Where Your Customers Are

Ideally, you want your social media following to be reflective of your target customer base. There is no sense in building up an audience of people who have no interest in buying your products. It seems obvious, I know, but I’m always surprised by people who are more concerned with follower numbers than actually building a targeted connection.

This report from comScore can give you some clues on how certain demographics of the population are spending their time online, giving you some ideas where your market might be. You can also gather this information by engaging your own audience on your blog and elsewhere to find out where they might be.

Pay Attention

Pay attention to what your current followers like. Take note of what they respond to, comment on and share. Look beyond their interaction with you and look at their own profiles. What is common to the people who seem to follow you?

Ask Them

Engage your followers in conversations, so you can get to know them better. You can even create polls and ask them direct questions about what kind of content they’re interested in, what questions they need answered and more.

Shape Your Own Target

You certainly have some control over your target market as well. If you share certain types of content, you are more likely to attract a certain type of audience, so don’t be afraid to experiment.

Add to that, you can shape your following by following targeted people as well. Follow companies and individuals whose social network presence resonates with you. Get involved with their conversations and connect with their audience as well.

Using This Information

Once you have a good idea about who your target is, you have to deliver the content they are looking for and this may take some experimentation. This is the time to put aside your personal preferences and find out what really gets their attention and engages them.

To help you start formulating the right kind of content, ask yourself the following questions:

– What are their key interests?
– What beliefs are vital to them, as it relates to your niche?
– What are their goals?
– What challenges do they have?
– What are their dreams and wishes?

When you have this deep understanding, you can start delivering things that satisfy the questions above. Remember, to experiment with different types of content. Whether it’s images, video, text, links to blog post or just about anything, find out what they like and deliver more of that.

At Strategize Your Success we help entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with strategic goal setting, marketing and planning. We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE.

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Growing a Highly Targeted Social Media Following
- December 3, 2012
- 0 comments
- by Wanda Baader
We’ve all seen pages on Facebook with thousands…even millions of followers. We’ve seen the same with Twitter and other social networks. It may seem a little overwhelming if you’re starting with a small following and it may feel like you’re just not going to get anywhere if you don’t have a huge following.
But the truth is, a targeted following is always your best bet. While you should always work toward growing your following, you can still get results from your well-cultivated following. So keeping pushing forward. It’s worth it.

To get you started, here are some tips for growing your following:

Invite Your Website Visitors

When someone visits your website, one of your main goals (if it’s not for them to buy a product) should be to get them on your email mailing list. That way, you can contact them directly over and over again through your list. But another thing you want new visitors and even regular visitors to do is follow you on social media. Having multiple avenues to communicate with your audience is a good thing and allows you to stay in the mind of your prospects.

Include buttons on your site that allow your visitors to follow you directly on your main social media networks. While, it may be tempting to offer up a ton of options and include buttons for every social network you’ve joined, do consider these pitfalls:

– By including too many choices, you decrease your chances of getting your visitor to do anything. The old saying that “the confused mind always says no,” is absolutely true.

– Add to that, when you include buttons for networks you’re not that active on, you don’t provide a very good experience for your following.

Instead, keep it focused and limit your follow buttons to the networks where you participate readily. In addition, include invitations to follow you on social media in your blog posts and other content. Don’t just rely on buttons in the side bar…ask them to follow you directly.

Invite Your Mailing List

Asking your mailing list to follow you in social media gives you yet another way to communicate with your audience. Include follow buttons at the end of your emails, but also mention some of your interesting posts inside the emails you send. For example, if you posted a video you know they will want to see, send them to Facebook to view it. Or if you’re online and are available to chat, start a Hangout on Google.

Just one tip…make sure the updates you share are public. While it might make sense to make them private, so people have to follow you to see them, it can be frustrating for your subscribers. After all, your subscribers have ALREADY told you that they’re interested in your stuff and have ALREADY given you their email address. Don’t make them jump through hoops to see your additional content.

Make Friends in Your Niche

One of the easiest ways to grow your social networking and online following is by making friends with others in your niche. That effect is even more dramatic when you make connections with influential people in your niche. Always spend time on developing meaningful relationship with like minded people because it has a lot of benefits:

– You can share one another’s content

– You can share ideas and give each other advice

– You can cross-promote products.

And we’re talking about meaningful relationships here. Not just simply following someone on Twitter and hoping they’ll notice your @ replies. You need to connect them directly, meet them in person or offer to help them in some way. Real relationships don’t develop through liking someone’s Facebook status, so do the work necessary to grow your network of friends.

Get Involved an Interact

Even though liking someone’s video on Facebook isn’t going to make you best friends, interacting regularly with people can help you get noticed. Provide useful commentary on content that is complementary to your niche, get involved and be visible. If people can use you, they are more likely to follow you.

Of course, balance this with the importants of keeping your schedule and avoiding distraction. Always be very purposeful about your participation and you will reap the benefits.

Remember, Growing a Following Goes Both Ways

Remember, that growing a following through SM goes the other way too. Get people to share your content on social media, so you can drive that traffic back to you. Getting that traffic back from social media helps you grow your list and sell your products.

Always make it easy for people to share your content. Include sharing buttons on your blog posts, free report download pages and just about anywhere you publish content. The easier it is for people to spread the word, the more likely they are to do it.

More Advice Coming in the Next Couple of Posts

Obviously, the most important key to gaining and retaining your following is to be interesting and useful. These are huge topics that deserve some discussion of their own. So we’ll be talking about just that in the next couple of posts. Next up, we’ll examine how to be interesting by understanding your target market and really getting a grasp of who you’re talking to. Then we’ll talk about being useful and providing something unique that others in your niche don’t. When you master that, it’s much easier to grow and nurture your following.

At Strategize Your Success we help entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with strategic goal setting, marketing and planning. We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE.

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Managing Your Social Networking Time
- November 28, 2012
- 0 comments
- by Wanda Baader
Getting Lost on Social Media? Social media is one of the most important business communication developments in a long time, but it’s also one of the biggest sources of distraction and is often a time suck for otherwise productive business owners.

Learning to manage your own social networking time will help you leverage all those great benefits and help you get rid of those unwanted side effects.

Here are some tips to get you going…

Know What You Want to Do

Before you log into another social network, make sure you have a very clear idea of what you want to accomplish with your social networking participation. While you should know where you’re going before you go there in all aspects of your life, it’s even more important on social media because it’s just too easy to get distracted. Whether it’s political stuff that gets you all fired up or a funny meme of a cat saying something hilarious, we’ve all been there.

I’m also talking about knowing what you want to accomplish on a large and small scale.

You should know what you want over the long term (ex. expand your reach, get more loyalty from your audience, etc.) and what you want to do on a daily basis (ex. respond to comments, post a new video). Whether you use paper and pen, mind map software or voice memos to yourself to plan, record your ideas, so you have a rock solid plan for what you hope to do.

Limit the Networks You’re Involved In

Too many business owners try to be everywhere at once. It’s a recipe for burnout and it isn’t likely going to grow your business because you won’t have time to work on your actual business. It’s important to select only a handful of key social networks and if you’re just getting started with social networking, simply start with one network and move from there.

Of course, finding out what works best for your business will take some experimentation. Just don’t rush to do everything at once because you need to dedicate the appropriate time and effort to seeing what produces the most benefit.

Finish Other Tasks First

On a daily basis, work on your core business tasks first and then try saving social networking for the end of the day. That way, you can ensure everything that needs to get done gets done. This strategy also allows you to do more exploration on social networking so you can find new people to follow, interesting information and more.

Carve Out Your Time

Know how much time you are going to spend and what you’re going to do before you log into any of your accounts. Setting a limit is important, particularly if you have other business tasks or personal things to attend to when you’re done. Making sure you have your tasks outlined also helps you stay on track…instead of following that link to a YouTube video of an amazing 5 year old opera singer.

And always remember, when you log in…serve your audience first. You can’t go wrong by focusing on your audience.

Have a Notification Strategy

There’s nothing more detrimental to productivity than being interrupted all day long with emails telling you about new retweets, likes and comments. You can limit these interruptions in a few ways:

– Turn notifications off completely. Rarely, is there a social media emergency and if you’re already checking in regularly, you don’t really need to get an email notification for everything.

– Some networks, like Pinterest, allow you to get a daily digest of notifications, instead of receiving an individual notification of each update.

– Don’t send the notifications to your main email address. Choose an address you check less frequently, so you aren’t constantly distracted by the new updates.

Keep Your Business and Personal Accounts Separate

While you may share some personal information on your business accounts, it’s easiest if you keep your business social networking activities separate from your personal ones. There are actually a few benefits to this.

The first is eliminating distractions. So if Aunt June sends you a private message and your friend Steve post a funny picture of his toddler, you won’t distracted from your to-do list.

Keeping things separate also helps you stay informed about your niche and makes it easy for you to be a useful for source of information for your readers. So follow personal connections on your personal accounts and follow industry leaders and information providers on your business accounts. That way, your news feeds will be relevant to what you are working on.

And finally, it makes you more relevant to your followers. Many online business owners broadcast business related information to their friends and family when it doesn’t really make sense. And the reverse problem is true. If you’re posting a lot of personal information, it may or may not be of interest to your business followers. You can avoid this, by separating your social media activities.

Get Help

There’s no reason you have to do all your social networking yourself. Even if you’re a solo entrepreneur, you can build a team or have someone alongside to help you. You can have someone help you with:

– Posting updates

– Scheduling updates you’ve prewritten

– Creating and collecting images and other useful content you’d like to share

Building a team that represents your brand takes a lot of pressure off you and allows you to focus more on strategy and business building. At Strategize Your Success we can help you with this (strategizeyoursuccess.com).

Use Tools

We are going to talk about various tools that can help you in a later post, but there are plenty of tools that can help you schedule updates, allow you to view your various network streams in one place, compile analytics for you and more. These are very useful tools to ensure you keep tabs on your interactions, allow you to participate more efficiently and can help you rework your strategy for maximum effectiveness.

At Strategize Your Success we help entrepreneurs, coaches and small business owners with strategic goal setting, marketing and planning. We know what struggles you face and offer solutions to help make your business THRIVE.

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